Plot

Act I: "So the world will end in the year 3012... why does that year sound so familiar?"

After a storm, Fry and Leela encounter a puddle as they are walking. He takes off his pants and puts them over the puddle, and offers to hold Leela's hand and walk her over the puddle. Though she initially refuses, she eventually agrees, but is sucked into the puddle by a puddle monster as she walks over it. Back at Planet Express headquarters, Leela is covered in tentacle marks as a result of the incident. Fry, meanwhile, hangs his wet pants to a dry on a rope. Professor Farnsworth announces that he will be launching a weather balloon to investigate the odd weather conditions affecting Earth. The balloon is released, but takes Fry's pants along with it as Fry had tied his pants to the balloon's string. Not wanting to lose his "lucky pants", Fry gets the crew to track down the balloon so he can reclaim his pants. He eventually shoots the balloon down in space, which causes the pants to fall back to Earth in Central Park. As he is about to take his pants, which are hanging from a tree branch, he is blocked by a Central Park badger which promptly steals the pants and escapes into a hole. Fry chases down the badger in the hole covered in varmint grease, and discovers a mysterious set of symbols underground.

The crew come down as well to investigate the symbols, but Leela accidentally slips into a hole. Fry attempts to save her, but the grease on his hands causes her to lose her grip and fall down into the hole. The crew follow her down using a rope made of Fry's clothes. After she regains her consciousness, she discovers her leg is broken. In the hole, they find a huge stone pyramid as well as a disk. They take it back to Planet Express headquarters, where they discover the disk is a actually Martian calendar. Amy translates the Martian symbols on the calendar, which state that the world will end in 3012, shocking the crew.

Act II: "Is it just me, or is the world endin' more often these days?"

Professor Farnsworth reveals that the weather balloon detected the onset of a catastrophic sunspot cycle. It begins its effect on Earth, and mass panic ensues in the streets of New New York. The crew attempt to escape, but discover that all electric power on Earth has been disabled by the electromagnetic storm. The crew spend what they believe will be their last time on Earth: Fry and Leela are about to have sex, and Professor Farnsworth is embalming himself. Amy, however, finds a possible solution: escape through the stone pyramid, which she learns is actually a spaceship. The crew inspect their ship, which Leela estimates can hold around 30,000 people. Though initially intending to save as many lives as they can, they later attempt to make their escape on the ship as the storm worsens. Zapp, however, arrives and reports the ship to Nixon, who decides that the ship's destination will be Mars. Fry is disheartened due to the probability that he will not be able to board the ship, as he possesses no special skills. The Contrabulous Choosematron is assigned to choose evacuees. To his surprise, Fry is accepted and given a ticket, due to the fact that the Contrabulous Choosematron liked his pants. Fry holds Leela's hand as she places her hand into the Contrabulous Choosematron's slot, but she is rejected due to the fact that with all spaceships inoperable, only one pilot will be needed: Zapp. Fry, however, is somehow able to manage to get her a ticket, and he hands her a ticket with her picture on it. As the ship takes off, Leela realizes that her ticket is actually Fry's ticket with her picture glued on to it. Fry has sacrificed his seat on the ship and has stayed behind on Earth with Bender, who is eager to loot.

Act III: "It Mars that gonna be destroyed!"

On Mars, the evacuated Earthicans establish a new city, Dick Francisco. During the unveiling of the city, Singing Wind arrives, asking what they are doing on Mars. As Amy explains the translated symbols on the calendar, he reveals that it is not Earth that will be destroyed, but rather Mars, and points out how his people were so eager to abandon Mars. Soon, lightning strikes and Mars is hit with severe solar flares and dust storms. As subsurface gas pockets begin to erupt on the Martian surface, Mars blasts out of orbit. Back on Earth, however, the weather has returned to normal. Fry and Bender are relaxing on deck chairs, drinking piña skull-adas and preparing for the "apocalypse". Bender notices Mars visible in the sky, and Mars begins to hover dangerously close to Earth, bringing panic in New New York. The Martian evacuees jump from Mars to Earth, with the exception of Leela, who cannot jump due to her broken leg. Fry attempts to rescue her, and lifts up his hand to grab her. He fails, however, and causes both of their arms to be severed. Eventually, Scruffy rescues her with the help of a ladder and Farnsworth creates new arms for Fry and Leela with the help of his birthing machine. Fry apologizes for his actions. Leela, however, says that despite the fact Fry failed in trying to save her, he is the only person who loves her enough to try. They share a hug as the scene fades into a shot of Fry and Leela's severed arms, hands held together, floating in space.

Production

In 2012, two revelations concerning the episode were made. On 29 February, CGEF revealed the episode's title, its writer to be Josh Weinstein and its director to be Raymie Muzquiz.[1][2] On 25 April, MSN TV revealed the episode's plot and air date.[3]

In May, Countdown to Futurama began releasing promotional material for the episode. It has so far released five items: a promotional picture showing Leela - on crutches - and Fry on the Planet Express balcony on 7 May,[4] a video clip featuring the crew discussing the end of the world as well as scenes of New New York in chaos on 8 May,[5] concept art of Fry and Leela's Planet Express prom photo on 9 May[6] a second promotional picture showing Leela being entangled by a puddle monster while Fry, whose pants are on the road, watches on 10 May,[7] concept art of an excavated spaceship inside a cave on 11 May[8] and part of the storyboard showing Zapp pressing a button on a spaceship, causing snakes to be released onto Kif, on 12 May.[9]

Comedy Central's website released another promotional picture - showing Leela and Fry near the balcony.[10] By 1 June, Comedy Central had aired an advertisment for the seventh season of Futurama which featured a new clip from the episode.[11]

South Coast Today published an article about the Futurama season premiere on 16 June, revealing certain details about the episode.[12]Entertainment Weekly released another preview clip of the episode on 18 June.[13]

If the movies are considered non-episodic, then this episode could be considered the 100th episode.

Alternatively, if each movie is considered one episode, this could be considered the 104th episode.

This is moot, however, since according to the canon, the movies are considered four episodes each.

The name of the episode is a reference to Fry and Leela both having lost one arm at the end of the episode. The word 'Arms' is an anagram of Mars which gets destroyed at the end of the episode.

Mars is not exactly destroyed at the end of the episode. Mars appears to have had its orbit altered, now residing either between the Earth and the moon or just beyond the moon's orbit. It's hard to be certain which due to the perspective and sizes of each object.

The second act is interesting because it does not end on a funny punch line, but instead a dramatic fade out.

Both Leela and Fry should have known they would have survived the Apocalypse since they read Bender's script on their love life in "Overclockwise".

If one looks closely at the tickets, it can be known that the ticket Fry gives Leela is actually his own ticket before it is directly revealed when Leela peels off her picture. When Fry receives his ticket from the Contabulous Choosematron, it bears the number combination "023870096 58". When Fry gives Leela the ticket, it bears the same combination.

The tickets says "Non-Transferable" right on them, but Fry was able to transfer his simply by pasting a picture of Leela on his ticket. This was good enough to fool the police scanning the tickets, or perhaps the police only cared if the tickets were valid and not whose ticket it is.

The plot point of a solar flare destroying Earth is reminiscent of the film Knowing.

In the Planet Express ship, Bender is reading a copy of Space Mall, a parody of Sky Mall.

Nixon says the best destination for the evacuated Earthicans to be transported to is Mars, which has "no Woodward or Bernstein. That's a plus." He is referring to journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose news reporting on the Watergate scandal eventually led to Nixon's resignation.

Additionally, "that's a plus" could also refer to the advertisement slogan of the social network "Google+".

Fry says that Bender dumped pig's blood on him at the Planet Express Prom, a reference to Carrie.

"Sharksplosions" may be a reference to Sharksplode, an online tee-shirt store founded by Wil Wheaton and Joel Watson.

Zap pushes a button on the spaceplane and snakes fall out of a compartment onto Kif. This could be a reference to the movie "Snakes on a Plane". Also cliche ancient temple traps, like in Indiana Jones.

As Mars gets dangerously close to Earth, Hattie McDoogal says, "Oh no! The kajigger of Gibraltar!" Hattie refers to the landmark the Rock of Gibraltar, located off the coast of Europe. This is technically accurate; as Mars passes this point, it approaches the New York coastline and jumping point, the location of the Planet Express building.

Leela falling into the buried ship could be a reference to Predator 2.

The original prophecy said that the Earth would not at all be affected, yet the two planets nearly collided. This may be a reference to the fact that the Earth's orbit was artificially modified in "Crimes of the Hot".

Fry: I hope you're not too mad at me, Leela. For tearin' your arm up and all.Leela: I'm not mad. I'm on way too many painkillers.

Goofs

When Fry loses his pants, he says that they are the pants that he was wearing when he met Leela for the first time, in "Space Pilot 3000", and that they are his only pants. But in "A Head in the Polls" he sold his pants, along with the rest of his outfit, at the pawn shop for $50.

If Singing Wind and his people knew that Mars was doomed enough to evacuate so long ago, why did he and so many others remain and attempt to reclaim their land (before ultimately selling out on the premise the land sucked anyway)?

The storm disables all electronics, yet Nixon's head's robotic arm still functions normally. Additionally, Zapp and the NNYPD's guns should not work either, but it is possible that the laser technology is not affected by the storm. The Contrabulous Choosematron is also another item that still works.

All these items could have been powered without electricity, like Bender.

Bender's crank is only seen in the first scene where it is used; after that, it is gone.

The crank could give him an extremly long charge.

In this episode, Amy says she belonged to the sorority Sigma Beta, but in "The Series Has Landed", she says she belonged to Kappa Kappa Wong.

She could have changed sororities over the course of twelve years.

Farnsworth, Fry and Bender should have known the world would not end in 3012, since they witnessed it ending over one billion years later in "The Late Philip J. Fry".

They initially skipped almost 7000 years, during which time society had collapsed several times on unknown dates. It is likely they were trying to avoid whatever had caused this.

If Mars and Earth really passed that close, then the gravity of the two planets would rip them appart.

When giving Mars oxygen, it could have altered the gravity. However, this is highly unlikely, because atmosphere content affects a planet's gravitation very little.

There's no way that burning subteranian gasses could move Mars that close to Earth so quickly, as there are millions of miles between them.

The Contrabulous Choosematron gives Fry two passes, so he should have been able to go with everyone to Mars, regardless of giving one to Leela.

He got accepted twice, but he didn't get two passes.

Although Singing Wind explains why they left the Prophecy on Earth (to warn them not to go to Mars), it doesn't explain why they left the stone ship there.

It's possible that that was the very ship the original Martians used to come to Earth, and those Martians had died out on Earth, leaving behind their ship and calendar there, and the legend of their journey back on Mars.

Singing Wind was also surprised the spaceplane actually worked, so it's possible they had their doubts about that ship and used other ships to return to Mars.

For the second time (the first time being in "Overclockwise"), the pillars of the balcony spell "Planet Express" during the wide shot, but during the close-up, they do not.

Additionally, the letters spelling "Planet Express" are in a different position than in "Overclockwise."

The ladders that led up to the pillar on the Planet Express balcony were not there in previous episodes.

Bender drives a car into Herschel's Non-Discount Diamonds after all vehicles/electronics were to have stopped working

There is a strange plot point created by the fact that Singing Wind knew about the solar-flare proof space ship and the fact that it was Mars that was doomed, not Earth. The implication is that the native Martians intentionally put the ship and the prophecy-calendar-wheel in place to trick 30,000 Earthicans into flying to their deaths on Mars at some point in the distant past, perhaps as revenge for their perception of their poor treatment by Reginald Wong. (There is no indication in the episode of how long ago the ship and wheel were buried.). If the Martians knew it was Mars that was doomed, there would be no real reason for the ship to be on Earth with Singing Wind's knowledge of it and surprise at its functionality.